Posts Tagged ‘ZigBee Operator’

ZigBee Operator is a professional tool to learn, research, develop and test Digi’s ZigBee/XBee module. It implements both API encoder and decoder for Digi’s XBee & ZigBee Mesh and 802.15.4. Both AT and API commands are supported.

It’s so easy to send AT commands in API mode with ZigBee Operator comparing with X-CTU software. You don’t need input the long command packet and calculate the checksum. You only input the short command text and parameter according to the XBee Command Reference Tables. ZigBee Operator makes it so easy to configure, develop or test for XBee, ZigBee, 802.15.4 modules.

3. Run two ZigBee Operator applications, open the COM Port connected with above two XBee modules separately, and select the right baud rate for them. Here Module 1 is connected with COM 7, and Module 2 is connected with COM 8.

4. On both of ZigBee Operator (M1 and M2), click “AT Terminal” button to show Terminal Window. Type the AT Commands to make sure it’s in API mode.

5. Click “Device Properties” icon on ZigBee Operator-M2 to show Device Properties dialog. You can read the address of Module 2 directly. The address of Module 1 can also be read like this on ZigBee Operator (M1). Here, we will use Module 2 to remote control Module 1, the destination address already be selected from the Device Data Base form on Device Properties dialog below.

8. “D4” is the AT Command for DIO4 Configuration. On ZigBee Operator – M1, input D4 for the command and click Send button. You will see all Send and Receive information in Log Data panel. Here, the current DIO4 parameter of Module 1 is 5, that means DIO 4 digital output is high. At this moment, the LED5 on the adapter of Module 1 is off.

ZigBee Operator is developed by Serial Port Tool. It is a professional tool for Digi’s ZigBee/XBee module researching, learning, developing and testing. It implements both API coder and decoder for Digi’s XBee & ZigBee Mesh and 802.15.4. Both AT and API command are supported.

ZigBee Operator will send a data frame to module. It starts with “7E” and “08” is the flag for AT command. The “0x56 0x52” are ASCII code for character “VR”. The command are not case sensitive. Both “VR” and “vr” works.

The module will send a “AT Command Response” data frame to ZigBee Operator. The last line “Para” is the command result. In this sample, it is “21 70”, means the firmware is 2170, the firmware for API Zigbee coordinator.

To run a command with a parameters, like “SN”command, which sets the number of sleep periods to not assert the On/Sleep pin on wakeup if no RF data is waiting for the end device. The default value for this command is 1. Send “SN” command without any parameter like example above will return the value.

ZigBee Operator support “Explicit Addressing ZigBee Command”. We can use Explicit Addressing ZigBee Command for link testing with API firmware.

Steps for Link Testing

Prepare the mesh network. The minimum requirement for a mesh network is a coordinator and an end device. We use a end device with API firmware.

Power on both coordinator and end devices. Connect the coordinator to the computer.

Open the ZigBee Operator and connect with serial port of XBee modules.

Go to “Tools-XBee Devices Properties” or “ ” icon to open Properties window and check “API” check box. Click “Read” button to make sure the computer can talk to device correctly.

Go to “Tools->Search XBee Devices” or click “”icon to open “Search Device” window and check “API Mode”. Click “Search Network” button to search the network to make sure the end device are connected with Coordinator.

Click “Add To Database” button to add all XBee modules’ information to database.

Set “Cluster ID” to 12 and “Source Endpoint” to E8 and “Destination Endpoint” to E8.

Set “Profile ID” to C105

Select “TEXT” in format and input “Echo” in RF Data. It can be any text as long as it is not empty.

Click “Send” button.

It will send the data to coordinator endpoint E8 from source endpoint using cluster ID 12. This is setting for Loopback data. When coordinator received data from end point E8, it will send the data back.

ZigBee Operator is a professional tool for Digi’s ZigBee/XBee module researching, learning, developing and testing. It implements both API coder and decoder for Digi’s XBee & ZigBee Mesh and 802.15.4. Both AT and API command are supported.